It is summer, it is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident - an incident which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander - until he becomes a suspect. With "Case Histories", Kate Atkinson showed how brilliantly she could explore the crime genre and make it her own.
John Wayne O'Grady, filled with anger and self-righteousness, enters a Family Value restaurant, pulls out a shotgun, and tells the customers and employees that it is time for Family Value to pay its dues. Among those present is Freda, a nine-year-old girl oblivious to the gunman, who stands at the counter demanding the Wild West sticker that she should have gotten with her Noonburger.